April Coords Roundup

How has April gone by so quickly? It felt like I blinked and then it was all over. Then again, lately I feel like that about a lot of things.

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Coord 1: Spring Desserts

| Victorian Maiden Shirring Frill JSK | Infanta overblouse | morun x muuna stoik overskirt | Peacockalorum underskirt | Miss Point corset | Baroque Secret Garden tights | Elf Armorie Cupid's Heart shoes | Cutie Creator headdress | Sweet Mildred brooch | offbrand earrings and rings | Innocent World Moon and Star Pearl necklace | Peppermint Fox brooch | Folk and Fortune Diamond of the First Water brooch | 

Lately I've gotten quite a lot into super subtle eye makeup and been practicing that.

F in the chat, please, as I lost one of those somewhere on my way back from the meet.

I had barely got my spring/summer things out of storage before I dived into wearing them. This coord started out for a Discord server challenge where we tried to identify members of the server from a flatlay — though I did change up a few details between the flatlay and the worn version so as to not make myself quite so obvious. But hey, one bit of work for double duty. I wore this for a meet to go to check out a dessert place and then take pictures with whatever was left of the cherry blossoms (the weather had battered every bit of bloom it found with rains and winds). An excellent start to the season, really loved this coord and it was fun to wear it to such a relaxed meetup.

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Coord 2: Easter Mario

| Metamorphose Vintage Fruit OP and hair clips | Banned Retro cardigan | Haenuli Secret Garden tights | Sosic Shop shoes | offbrand earrings, necklace, and ring | Magical Mews Swan Hoe pin | handmade bracelets | 

The face of someone who enjoyed doing bare minimum on Easter Sunday.

Is this the first time that I'm wearing this pin whilst wearing actual Meta main piece? I can't remember. Hopefully not - but quite possibly yes.

On Easter Sunday we had plans to see the new Mario film, which kind of sorted out what to wear. It was the most laid back Easter Sunday I’ve had in the last few years and although part of me missed making a bit more of a fuss about it, it was equally nice to have such a chill day. Mario is by far not my favourite character or Nintendo franchise, but he is the easiest one for me to put a last minute coord for. And since I haven’t done anything tricolour with this dress yet, it was extra nice to get that ticked off.

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Coord 3: Low Energy

| Physical Drop Shirring 3-Tier OP | Innocent World Pure Smooth Millefeuille bolero | Violet Fane Enchanted Ivy tights | Modo Prayer Poem shoes | Angelic Pretty Classical Petit Rose headbow | offbrand necklace |

The other thing that I am continually into is using just the lipstick as my whole makeup: lip, blush, and eyeshadow. As easy mode as it gets and yet it ends up looking surprisingly put together.

Enjoy the ominous shadow of my phone.

Despite it being warm and sunny, that week really wasn’t my week. But you know, the horrors persist and so do I, so I persisted and came up with the laziest coord that I could think of, landing me on this. I keep saying that I both want and need more Physical Drop and then end up not getting more Physical Drop, but honestly, I need to get my act together and obtain more Physical Drop. This is too comfy to not have more of.

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Coord 4: All the Quintessentials

| Metamorphose Sailor Tiered skirt | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World Gilder bolero | Enchantlic Enchantilly The Crown of the Violet Princess tights | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Cutie Creator Maiden Prayer headbow | offbrand earrings, necklace, and ring | Peppermint Fox brooch | Peacockalorum Silver Jewel Feather brooch |

This might be one of my favourite coords of the month, maybe even of the year so far. And not just because of dipping into my formula.

But because of all these delicious textures.

It felt like it’s been a while since I was in frills by that point and I felt eager to change that. Going through my past coords with this skirt reminded me how much I enjoy wearing it in classic ways, so I basically went down the checklist of what makes a coord quintessentially me and checked every box. This is my autocorrect’s most exciting day for writing down the coord rundown (except that I wrote it by hand on my laptop). Based on how nice this felt to wear, I may have to do a more thorough cull of certain pieces — not that I’m ready for that just yet.

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Coord 5: Games and Dots

| Metamorphose Polka Dots Shirring JSK | Laura Ashley blouse | Angelic Pretty Drained Cherry OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | offbrand beret, hair clips, earrings, and brooch | Two Days Slow hair clips | vintage necklace | Magical Mews Swan Hoe pin | Sweet Dolly House Cookie Bon Bon ring | Banned Retro Bella belt |

Honestly, the temptation to cut myself a fringe again is strong, but I keep resisting because I know it's just annoyance with the growing out length.

Ah, there we go. Proof that the previous coord couldn't have been the first time I've worn the Swan Hoe pin with a Meta main piece. 

You know what? Even when all you do is stay at home and play games all by yourself, dressing up makes it feel like an occasion. It got me in a good mood. No other mood is allowed if you're head to toe in polka dots. Really like how this coord came out and a whole day of Pokemon followed by DnD was 100% needed after a very productive week.

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Coord 6: Project Hail Mary

| Metamorphose Airline JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Metamorphose Cyber Neon Girl jacket | Angelic Pretty Colorful Polka Dots OTKs | offbrand boots | Lotus Ribbon hair clips | Vivienne Westwood Lorelei studs | Vivienne Westwood Mini Bas Relief pendant | Etoile Reverie brooch | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring |

In hindsight, I probably could've amped the orange up a little bit more. Then again, this was entirely for the photos only, so it's fine.

Shoutout to Lotus Ribbon for giving us cute bow clips in unusual colours.

To (finally) watch Project Hail Mary at the cinema I really wanted to wear something “spacey”. Not something I own much of, so mildly futuristic it was. With the bright orange, the Dumb Airline Dress felt like the best choice and I initially wanted to wear it with green, but then pivoted hard to the Cyber Neon Girl jacket and everything fell into place instantly! (I will one day wear this JSK with green, but my current greens are all very classic and this needs, well, neon.) Part of me felt stupid doing makeup that I knew was pretty much just for the photos, as I subsequently cried all of my mascara off, but at least I did get the nice photos before. The film absolutely exceeded my expectations in terms of emotional pay off, it saw my paltry assortment of tissues that I brought with me and laughed in my face about it, but I loved it, big recommend.

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Coord 7: Matilda: The Musical

| HeartE Tartan JSK | Fi.n.t. cutsew | Hell Bunny cardigan | Innocent World Anchor OTKs | Hot Chocolate Designs shoes | offbrand hat, earrings, and pin | vintage necklace | Dear Celine badge |

Hiding all the messy pinning of my braids at the back with a hat, a classic tactical move.

[In the voice of University Challenge] Pembroke College Oxford! Gotta represent them sometimes. Only sometimes though.

To see Matilda: The Musical at the theatre I wanted to go with something that’d vaguely tap into the school aesthetic, but without looking like a 34-year-old in a school uniform. Tartan is a common school uniform pattern in the UK and sailor collars are common in Japanese school uniforms, but the two don’t mix, making the overall look detached enough from either to achieve what I wanted it to. Add the flats and a nod to my university college through the pin, and it’s all that was needed. Very comfy to work from home in and perfectly small poof for a narrow theatre seat. All the boxes have been ticked.

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I ran out of the month and energy to squeeze in one more coord before this post was due. That’s fine though. Warmer weather is very welcome, but also brings with it the usual crisis of layering as how I like to style my frills doesn’t match up with what’s comfortable for me in the current climate. That being said, if all goes well, then I might be looking at ending my no buy a little bit sooner. I don’t think that I necessarily am in need of anything, so it may continue for a little bit longer, but at least I won’t feel so bad if I do end up purchasing something or feel the need to reject everything, even if it is on my wish/need/replace list (a genuine thing that’s been happening). So here’s to figuring out summer layering over the course of May and to more frills next month, I really missed having more energy to dress up.